 MOHD.

ADLI AKIL
 MOHD. SHARMAN FAIZ
 LUQMAN AL HAKIM
 MOHD. RASYDAN
 MOHD. AMIRUL IHSAN
 DEFINITION
A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of
computers and associated devices that share a
common communications line or wireless link.
Typically, connected devices share the resources
of a single processor or server within a small
geographic area (for example, within an office
building). A local area network may serve as few
as two or three users (for example, in a home
network) or as many as thousands of users (for
example, in an FDDI network).
HISTORY..
 As larger universities and research labs
obtained more computers during the late
1960s, there was increasing pressure to
provide high-speed interconnections. A
report in 1970 from the Lawrence
Radiation Laboratory detailing the growth
of their "Octopus" network, gives a good
indication of the situation.
 Cambridge Ring was developed at
Cambridge University in 1974 but was
never developed into a successful
commercial product.
STILL HISTORY…

 ARCNET was developed by

Data point Corporation in 1976
and announced in 1977 - and
had the first commercial
installation in December 1977 at
Chase Manhattan Bank in New
York
 CABLING
► Early LAN cabling had always been based on
various grades of co-axial cable, but IBM's Token
Ring used shielded twisted pair cabling of their
own design, and in 1984 Star LAN showed the
potential of simple Cat3 unshielded twisted pair
the same simple cable used for telephone
systems.
► This led to the development of 10Base-T (and its
successors) and structured cabling which is still
the basis of most LANs today.
 LAN DIFFICULTIES…!
 LANs are susceptible to many kinds of transmission
errors. Electromagnetic interference from motors,
power lines, and sources of static, as well as shorts
from corrosion, can corrupt data. Software bugs and
hardware failures can also introduce errors, as can
irregularities in wiring and connections.
 Security problems can also be an issue with LANs.
They can be difficult to manage and access because
the data they use is often distributed between
many different networked sources. In addition,
many times this data is stored on several different
workstations and servers.
Transmission Methods Used By
LANs..
The transmission methods used on LANs are either baseband
or broadband. The baseband medium uses a high-speed
digital signal consisting of square wave DC voltage. As a
result, it is suitable for smaller networks where contention is
low. It also is very simple to use, requiring no tuning or
frequency discretion circuits. This transmission medium may
be connected directly to the network access unit and is
suitable for use over twisted wire pair facilities.
By contrast, the broadband medium tunes signals to special
frequencies, much like cable television. Stations are instructed
by signaling information to tune to a specific channel to
receive information. As a result, the medium generally
requires higher capacity facilities, such as coaxial cable.
Suited for busier LANs, broadband systems require the use of
tuning devices in the network access unit that can filter out all
but the single channel it needs.
Physical Components of LANs..
• The physical properties of a LAN include network access units (or interfaces)
that connect the personal computer to the network. These units are actually
interface cards installed on computer motherboards. Their job is to provide a
connection, monitor availability of access to the LAN, set or buffer the data
transmission speed, ensure against transmission errors and collisions, and
assemble data from the LAN into usable form for the computer.
• The next part of a LAN is the wiring, which provides the physical connection
from one computer to another, and to printers and file servers. The properties
of the wiring determine transmission speeds. The first LANs were connected
with coaxial cable, the same type used to deliver cable television. These
facilities are relatively inexpensive and simple to attach. More importantly, they
provided great bandwidth (the system's rate of data transfer), enabling
transmission speeds initially up to 20 megabits per second.
 A more recent development in LAN wiring is optical
fiber cable. This type of wiring uses thin strands of
glass to transmit pulses of light between terminals. It
provides tremendous bandwidth, allowing very high
transmission speeds and because it is optical rather
than electronic, it is impervious to electromagnetic
interference. Still, splicing it can be difficult and
requires a high degree of skill. The primary application
of fiber is not between terminals, but between LAN
buses (terminals) located on different floors. As a
result, fiber distributed data interface is used mainly in
building risers. Within individual floors, LAN facilities
remain coaxial or twisted wire pair.
The File Server..
• The administrative software of the LAN resides
either in a dedicated file server; in a smaller,
less busy LAN; or in a personal computer that
acts as a file server. In addition to performing as
a kind of traffic controller, the file server holds
files for shared use in its hard drives,
administers applications such as the operating
system, and allocates functions.
• The addition of a dedicated file server may be
costly, but it provides several advantages over a
distributed system. In addition to ensuring
access even when some machines are down, its
only duties are to hold files and provide access.
 Other Lan Equipment…
 LANs are generally limited in size because of the
physical properties of the network including distance,
impedance, and load. Some equipment, such as
repeaters, can extend the range of a LAN. Repeaters
have no processing ability, but simply regenerate signals
that are weakened by impedance. Other types of LAN
equipment with processing ability include gateways,
which enable LANs operating dissimilar protocols to pass
information by translating it into a simpler code, such as
ASCII.
 The connection of two or more LANs over any
distance is referred to as a wide area network
(WAN). WANs require the use of special software
programs in the operating system to enable dial-
up connections that may be performed by a
telephone lines or radio waves. In some cases,
separate LANs located in different cities—and
even separate countries—may be linked over the
public network.
 http://www.answers.com/topic/loc
al-area-network
 http://compnetworking.about.com/c
s/lanvlanwan/g/bldef_lan.htm
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_
area_network.com